Friday, March 2, 2012

Cougar Town - "A Mind with a Heart of its Own”/“Lover's Touch”

Season 3, Episodes 2-3 

With Cougar Town now firmly entrenched in it's third season (though whether that third will turn into a fourth remains unclear, given that the show's rating didn't seem to move at all, and ABC still treats it like dirt) the burden falls on to the second and third seasons to define just what this season is going to be about. Now for most comedies, and especially for one that's has a relaxed tone like Cougar Town, having your seasons be “about” or point to something isn't really that important of a requirement, and that's okay. But given how season one of the show was about Jules' rediscovering herself after divorce, and season two was about new relationships (for both Jules and Travis), it would seem to follow that season three would do the same.

From the premiere, the answer seemed fairly obvious – the season was going to be about the gear-up to (and mostly include) Jules and Grayson's wedding. It's a solid premise, one that many shows have used quite successfully over the years. However, there are five other cast members on this show (plus Bob Clendenin as Tom, who Bill Lawrence says he will make part of the official cast assuming they get a fourth season and enough money to do so), and they can't all be realistically involved in the wedding all the time for the next 14 episodes.

That “A Mind with a Heart of its Own” is all about the wedding – Jules has to pick between Ellie and Laurie for Maid of Honor duties, Grayson goes to visit Chick to get his approval of the marriage, and Bobby tries to show the couple that he's okay with them getting married (which of course he isn't) by constructing a zip-line/metaphor connecting their two houses. Though all of these plot made for some good jokes – especially Bobby's, which provided the best sight gag of the night – all of them felt not only perfunctory in the wake of the premiere's closing minutes, but also slight in a way that Cougar Town rarely isn't.

Sure, this is a show that gets by on charm and can thus throw purposefully light plotlines are way and have it all turn out okay, but the show is also usually able to differentiate between the slight and the not-so-slight by giving proper pathos to those that do matter, and that wasn't quite the case here. Jules, Grayson, and Bobby were all trying to prove something to somebody else (to Ellie/Laurie, Chick, and Grayson/Jules, respectively) with the actions tonight, all of which were brought on by feelings of love (for Ellie/Laurie, Jules, and Jules again, respectively) and in that sense with three plotlines all hitting the same emotional beats, it became hard to know how invested to become in each. There's nothing wrong in theory about having all three plots mean something, but it takes an extremely deft hand to pull it off, and in the world of comedy, where viewers are used to seeing A-, B-, and C-plots, each with descending amounts of emotional relevance, and trying to cram three into an episode becomes almost exhausting.

“Lover's Touch” then seems to function almost as an antithesis to “Heart”, in terms of both narrative goals and its format. In a scene that perhaps anticipates all future criticism, the show uses Grayson to quickly comment on how Jules/the show seems to be getting wrapped up in the wedding, then the episode is off to deal with a whole host of other issues. That Grayson would feel abandoned thanks to Jules' intense wedding planing feeling like yet another holdover from the premiere, so that's thankfully resigned to the B-plot slot. The same goes for the Domination Ball C-plot, which has some good jokes but also resorts to some outdated gender humor, even as it admirably (and ironically) strives to prove that men and women are now on equal footing.

The A-plot of the story was the real action was tonight, as well as most of the best laughs, as Travis' head injury sees a glorious return of his and Jules creepy mother-child relationship, while also being an open enough plot to allow the rest of the characters participate as well. And the end of last season, Travis was still reeling from his break-up with Kirsten, and while Jules and the gang were able to convince him to return home, it's something that would realistically still be hanging over his head, as the show rightly comments on here. Yet the real point of this story seems to be indicating Travis attempts to become an even more independent adult, which seems to be brought on both his age and as a sort of defensive-reaction to getting dumped. I hope that the show stick with this vein, because as the end of the episode proper proves, learning that your child is sometimes out of your control is a scary thing for a parent, especially someone as controlling as Jules.

Also included in this episode are two runners – that of various members visiting the dog park to supplement whatever lack of affection their feeling, and the group's lack of knowledge about Tom – and while this could make the episode feel overstuffed, it's to the show's credit that this doesn't end up being the case. As a show with a laid-back tone, Cougar Town doesn't have to play by traditional sitcom rules, and while it doesn't always work (as in “Heart”) it does allow the show to get a bit crazy in how it tells it stories. Thus the gleeful abandon with which the episode bounced around from plot to plot with abandon was somehow invigorating. I hope that the show in more open to experimenting with form in later episodes, because the breathless pace at which the episode flew by made for the strongest of the season so far.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

 “Heart”'s title card: “Titles we like better than Cougar Town: Sunshine State, The Drinking Age, Cougar City, Mid-Life.

“Don't make fun of me, Mr. Pees With No Hands.”

“I get super emotional – in my pants.”

“PRINCE CHARLES! That's what I say whenever I want to throw up.”

“They are way hotter as a black couple.” “Most people are.” “Truth.”

“Keep moving you little squirrel, you already climbed this tree.”

“Ah, the waitress gave him crayons...”

“My neck is sore from your chin stubble.” “Well, my crotch is wet from your butt sweat, so nobody wins.”

“Grayson, you're acting like you've never shot a horse before.” “I haven't!” “Well that's sad; you're a grown man.”

“Can you go upstairs to my bathroom, and there's a bottle of these big yellow pills, could you crush up like six of them in a glass of wine?” “I love that drink.”

“Say Jules, what's going on with your wedding?” “I'm bleeding internally.” “Gotcha.”

***********

“Touch”'s title card: “This is not the Simpson's chalkboard bit. 
                              This is not the Simpson's chalkboard bit.
                              This is not the Simpson's chalkboard bit.” 

“But please thank Bryan for his service to our country.” “Bryce.” “Bryce.”

“Shut your face.” “You shut your face.” “Now it's a family dinner!”

“I would totally date a guy with no feet. It's one less gross thing for me to deal with.”

“There all big toes.”

“Nothing's just for dudes anymore. Not NASCAR, not cigars, not even peeing standing up.”

“You think my name is Tom Gazoinks?”

“She was no you.” “They never are.”

“I miss being a ho.” “You want back in? Because will take you back.”

“Looks like they sense your loneliness, Grayson. Let them fix it.”

“First off, girls throw like chicks.”

“Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but I could get that A by myself. Also by making out with him.”

“This is an exact replica of the helmet Amelia Airhart wore when she invented airplanes.” “Uh-uh.” “When her baby got stolen!” “Nope.”

“It's like I learned nothing from Katherine Heigl movies.”

“You know, you should really let people see those painting you've been working on in your room.” “Stop spying on me.” “Stop being so talented.”

No comments:

Post a Comment